BARS OF STEEL is the true story of a beautiful, young Filipina who leaves her home in the quiet Philippines countryside to work as a dancer in Hong Kong's red-light district of Wan Chai. Destined to help her parents, three brothers, and three sisters back in the Philippines, Maria de la Torre (now called Mary) arrives in Hong Kong. Her greatest personal assets are youth, idealism, hope, sexual innocence, and naivety are quickly pitted against the forces around her: greedy mamasans, imposing customers, the peer pressure of fellow bar girls, and the omnipresent financial needs of her family.